Lost Illusions: Two Poets

Honoré de Balzac (1799 - 1850)
Translated by Ellen Marriage (1865 - 1946)

Two Poets (1837) is the first book in Balzac’s Lost Illusions trilogy, which is part of his sweeping set of novels collectively titled La Comédie Humaine. The story is set in post-Napoleonic France, when the new bourgeoisie was jostling for position alongside the old aristocracy. We meet Lucien Chardon, a young provincial who romantically aspires to be a poet, and his friend David Séchard, who struggles to manage his father’s printing shop and falls in love with Lucien’s sister Ève. The picture of provincial life that emerges is laced with greed, ambition, and duplicity.

Balzac’s work was hugely influential in the development of realism in fiction, and indeed in creating our sense of 19th-century European culture. Oscar Wilde archly said, “The 19th century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac’s.” The Lost Illusions trilogy is one of his greatest achievements, and is named in the reference work 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. The two other volumes in the trilogy are A Distinguished Provincial at Paris (1839) and Ève and David (1843). (Summary by Bruce Pirie)

Other volumes in this series:
Lost Illusions: A Distinguished Provincial At Paris
Lost Illusions: Ève and David

Genre(s): Literary Fiction

Language: English

Group: Balzac's Human Comedy

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Chapter 1 Bruce Pirie
00:32:39
Play 02 Chapter 2 Bruce Pirie
00:26:58
Play 03 Chapter 3 Bruce Pirie
00:26:47
Play 04 Chapter 4 Bruce Pirie
00:38:48
Play 05 Chapter 5 Bruce Pirie
00:24:41
Play 06 Chapter 6 Bruce Pirie
00:22:42
Play 07 Chapter 7 Bruce Pirie
00:25:53
Play 08 Chapter 8 Bruce Pirie
00:28:30
Play 09 Chapter 9 Bruce Pirie
00:35:59
Play 10 Chapter 10 Bruce Pirie
00:30:32
Play 11 Chapter 11 Bruce Pirie
00:23:35
Play 12 Chapter 12 Bruce Pirie
00:29:06
Play 13 Chapter 13 Bruce Pirie
00:36:26